Sunday, November 11, 2007

Well another hunting season has come and gone with me once again tagging out. I suppose that I had to because I only had one week off for hunting season and that isn't too much time.Anyway, I got both my deer in a very, very dramatic half hour of hunting. Probably the most fun that I had for a long while, but it was also a touch and go operation. Let me elaborate...Well it all started out on a beautiful morning. It was about zero degrees and there was a slight Easterly wind blowing. I began the walk to my tree stand about half a kilometer away, not a far distance.Then all of a sudden, as I was walking down the desolate road, I saw headlights heading towards me. Of course it was my Uncle Ray, a hunting genius. He told me he saw thirty deer in a field further down our road, so I hopped in the back of his truck and he dropped me off at the field entrance. I got out and started stalking down the deer that were 600 yards or more away.Now I crept behind the hills and used the terrain to my advantage as I tried to get close to the deer. Now I literally had to get right up to the deer because I was using a World War One vintage gun, a 1916 Lee Enfield (maybe you read about her earlier...). Now it has no scope because I couldn't bring myself to damage that beautiful gun, it has to remain a classic. Anyway, as I was saying...I was creeping up on the animals (now there weren't thirty, more like ten) and then I saw them, three bucks fighting. An odd sight to see at the least, but I was determined to shoot one. I got down on my belly and began crawling towards them, inch by agonizing inch.All of the sudden the wind picked up and the oil on my gun must have stank something horrible because they began to run off in a hurry when I was still 200 yards off. My heart sank with every step away they took.Then hope sprung anew, a fawn was still left behind. I clenched my teeth and began the stalk again, determination flowing through my veins.Then the fawn jerked its head up and stared at me, tail raising slowly. I fumbled for my grunt call and sounded it a few times, hoping to settle the fawn down. Much to my luck it began walking slowly but surely towards me, a wonderful set-up.As I stared at the deer through my open sights a black blob caught my eye to my left. A moose! Now I had seen the moose the day earlier and it had a calf with her, but this time there was no baby. Thoughts of me sitting between her and her calf raced through my mind and I began to glance behind me, making sure a smaller moose wasn't behind me. The moose veered off and once again it was just me and the fawn.The fawn now was facing me straight on at a further distance then what I wanted. I waited for him to turn broadside so I could pull the trigger and snuff it out. Then I felt the warm sensation of snot running down my nose and over my lips but I knew that I couldn't make any movement to wipe. I clamped my mouth shut and took aim for the deer as I said I silent prayer. The deer turned broadside and I squeezed off the shot.SMACK-BOOOOM!!! The deer leapt like a bucking bronco and took off towards the Murder Bush (long story made short: A family was murdered there and it is very thick with willows and spooky). I flung my glove across my nose and worked the bolt all in one fluid motion, took aim and fired again... and again, and again, and again. To my utter disbelieve all of these shots missed except the first shot. As my heart hit my guts the deer stopped, looked around and then layed down as if it was going to sleep. My jaw dropped because ten more yards more and it would have been in a incredibly thick bush with no snow to try to track it. I decided to play it safe and try to circle the deer so if it did get up I could scare it away from the bush and open up on it again.I eventually got more or less behind it and walked towards it with the caution of a police approaching a downed criminal. I quickly realized the deer was down for the count and put down my gun to tag the thing.As I was preparing to tag the animals ear I heard a sound from behind once again. I immediately thought it was momma moose out for me again and I spun around will crouching into a fetal position. Again my jaw dropped as I saw it was a second fawn staring at my knife in my hand and the blood stained clothes I was wearing. I slowly picked up my gun again and lifted the barrel in the direction of the fawn, finger gently resting on the trigger. The deer spooked and ran behind a tree, poking its head out once in a while to eye me up. I whipped out my grunt call in an "Ah-ha!" moment and blew its majestic tune in the direction of the deer. It walked out again, standing perfectly broadside and just begging for me to pull the trigger. Never one to disappoint, I did what he asked.THACK-BOOOOM!!! The bullet struck true and the deer stumbled as it took off running down the hill. I could clearly see that it had wounded the deer because its front leg wasn't moving with the other three. I racked another round into the chamber and hastily fired off a second shot and the deer dropped to the ground, flopping like a fish out of water. I turned back to finish tagging my first fawn and then scampered over to the second one to tag him too. I then ran off to the road and flagged down my uncle, hopping around like a toad on drugs. We raced over to the deer and grabbed them, brought them home and gutted them out. All in all an eventful morning. And since both of them had little stubby antlers (legally short enough to throw an antlerless tag on it). So I guess you could say I got payed for my work (two bucks, get it?......bad pun I know, but work with me here!).